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What corporate characters can do: Six roles

Corporate characters do more than serve as eye-catching decoration.

Get noticed. Be remembered. Be understood.
Make the next step easier. Support continued use. Build familiarity.

YataLogic uses these six roles to organize challenges between companies and their customers.

Yataron, YataLogic’s official character, listening and taking notes

Every character does not need all six roles.

Before deciding to create one,
decide what job it should do.

Characters do not generate sales on their own. Sales and inquiries result from a combination of factors, including the appeal of the product or service, price and communication.

A character can address some of the earlier barriers: not being noticed or remembered, being difficult to understand, hesitation to act or difficulty continuing.

That is why YataLogic defines the character’s job from the first challenge you want to address.

Awareness and attention

1｜Get noticed

First attract attention, then guide the viewer’s eyes to the information you want them to see.

When is it useful?

  • Advertising gets lost among other information
  • You want people to stop at a trade show
  • You want people to see important information online

What should the character do?

  • Attract initial attention
  • Point to important figures or explanations
  • Provide a recognizable marker near the company or service name

Suitable touchpoints

Advertising · Trade shows · Websites · SNS · Stores

What should you check?

  • Was it seen?
  • Did the company name come across too?
  • Was the important information also seen?
Back to the six roles

Brand memory

2｜Be remembered

Use the character as a cue to remember the company or service, rather than only to remember the character itself.

When is it useful?

  • The service name is hard to remember
  • There are many competitors
  • You communicate across several media

What should the character do?

  • Appear repeatedly alongside the company name
  • Connect with the service’s key points
  • Remain the same recognizable marker across media

Suitable touchpoints

Websites · Advertising · SNS · Sales materials · Products and packaging

What should you check?

  • Can people recall the company name later?
  • Do they remember the service’s features?
  • Do they connect the character with the company?
Back to the six roles

Understanding support

3｜Be understood

Make difficult information easier to understand by guiding where to look and how to approach it in sequence, rather than simply adding more explanation.

When is it useful?

  • Service explanations become lengthy
  • There are many technical terms
  • Newcomers struggle to understand
  • The same questions recur in inquiries

What should the character do?

  • Point to important information
  • Divide explanations into steps
  • Voice users’ questions
  • Guide users to the information to view next

Suitable touchpoints

Service introduction pages · Sales materials · FAQ · Learning materials · Operating instructions

What should you check?

  • Was the information understood correctly?
  • Could users operate the service without confusion?
  • Did they read the explanation to the end?
Back to the six roles

Action support

4｜Make action easier

Even when people understand the content, anxiety or uncertainty can make action difficult. A character can help ease that initial psychological barrier.

When is it useful?

  • Making an inquiry feels difficult
  • People hesitate to ask basic questions
  • People feel anxious before applying
  • The first action is unclear

What should the character do?

  • Voice common concerns
  • Show a single first step
  • Explain what follows
  • Guide people before connecting them with a human representative

Suitable touchpoints

Contact pages · Application screens · Assessment tools · FAQ · Event guidance

What should you check?

  • Did users start an inquiry?
  • Did they finish entering the information?
  • Did they leave partway through?
Back to the six roles

Continued-use support

5｜Make it easier to continue

A character’s presence alone does not make people continue. Combine it with support that communicates progress, shows the next step and makes returning after an interruption easier.

When is it useful?

  • Continued use matters
  • You want learners to finish a course or learning activity
  • You want regular use of an app or service
  • Dropout is a challenge

What should the character do?

  • Communicate progress
  • Show the next action
  • Acknowledge achievements
  • Show people how to return after stopping

Suitable touchpoints

Membership services · Apps · Online courses · Training · Recurring services

What should you check?

  • Are people still using it after 7 days?
  • Are people still using it after 30 days?
  • Did people who stopped return?
  • Did they complete it?
Back to the six roles

Attachment

6｜Build familiarity

Repeated encounters with the same character and consistent words and behavior can help make the company feel more familiar.

When is it useful?

  • The company can appear formal or distant
  • You have ongoing customer touchpoints
  • You run social media or a community
  • Long-term brand relationships matter

What should the character do?

  • Express the company’s values
  • Use a consistent way of speaking
  • Appear as the same presence across touchpoints
  • Gradually build shared experiences with customers

Suitable touchpoints

SNS · Email · Communities · Events · Ongoing services

What should you check?

  • Do people feel familiarity?
  • Do they feel they can trust it?
  • Do they want to see it or engage again?
  • Do they connect the company with the character?
Back to the six roles

You do not need to assign
all six roles at once

Choose one primary role based on the first challenge you want to address.

Primary role 1

If needed, supporting roles 1–2

This is YataLogic’s basic approach.

At a trade show
First get noticed
When explaining a service
Be understood
Before an inquiry
Make action easier

Different roles call for
different measures

When assessing a corporate character, look at changes related to its assigned job as well as sales.

Get noticed
Was it seen?
Be remembered
Could they recall it later?
Be understood
Was it understood correctly?
Make action easier
Did they actually take the next step?
Make it easier to continue
Did they continue or return?
Build familiarity
Familiarity, trust and a desire to engage again

Which role fits your business?

What job should your company’s character do?
Explore the right role for your business through 8 questions.

Explore the right job for your character

Free · 8 questions · about 2 minutes

Does your company need a character in the first place?

Take the character-need assessment

For a closer look
at the research

『Sono Kigyo Character, Imi Aru? (Japanese only)』

The book examines attention, memory, understanding, action, continued use and attachment in greater depth through psychology, cognitive science and media research. Available in Japanese only.

View the book on Amazon (Japanese only)

References and sources

These are the studies and advertising analyses discussed for each role. We use research as a reference and check responses in actual use.

  1. Get noticed ／ Ipsos（2020）

    Sheridan, A.（2020）The Power of You: Why Distinctive Brand Assets Are a Driving Force of Creative Effectiveness. Ipsos Views.

    View the original source

  2. Be remembered ／ Garretson & Burton（2005）

    Garretson, J. A. & Burton, S.（2005）The Role of Spokescharacters as Advertisement and Package Cues in Integrated Marketing Communications. Journal of Marketing, 69(4), 118–132.

    View the original source

  3. Be understood ／ Wang et al. (2017)

    Wang, F., Li, W., Xie, H. & Liu, H.（2017）Is Pedagogical Agent in Multimedia Learning Good for Learning? A Meta-Analysis. Advances in Psychological Science, 25(1), 12–28.

    View the original source

  4. Make action easier ／ Gratch et al. (2014)

    Gratch, J., Lucas, G., King, A. & Morency, L.-P.（2014）It’s Only a Computer: The Impact of Human-Agent Interaction in Clinical Interviews. AAMAS 2014, 85–92.

    View the original source

  5. Make it easier to continue ／ Dworkin et al. (2026)

    Dworkin, M. S. et al.（2026）Evidence of Efficacy of the My Personal Health Guide Mobile Phone App on Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among Young African American Men Who Have Sex With Men at 1 Month: Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 14:e75005.

    View the original source

  6. Make it easier to continue ／ Cevasco et al. (2024)

    Cevasco, K. E. et al.（2024）Patient Engagement with Conversational Agents in Health Applications 2016–2022: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of Medical Systems, 48:40.

    View the original source

  7. Build familiarity ／ Rauschnabel & Ahuvia（2014）

    Rauschnabel, P. A. & Ahuvia, A. C.（2014）You’re So Lovable: Anthropomorphism and Brand Love. Journal of Brand Management, 21, 372–395.

    View the original source

Apply this to your business

After exploring the assessment and six roles, you may want to consider a more specific application.
Together, we identify the character’s job from your business and customer challenges.

Discuss your company’s character
About YataLogic